News

UNI Post & Logistics were invited to attend a meeting that the Spanish Govenrment hosted to promote the better use of the money transfer system being developed by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) to help migrant workers cheaply and securely make fast transfers of money back to their families using the Post Office network. UNI Post & Logistics has been supported this UPU initiative and were very pleased to be able to attend the meeting and support the expansion of this network into all of Central and Latin America.



The meeting, jointly hosted by the Spanish Ministry of Development, the UPU and the Regional UPU body for Latin America, UPAEP, was attended by representatives of postal administrations from 18 Central and Latin American countries, the Organisation of American States, the Spanish Post Office and observers from La Poste.



Opening the meeting, the Vice Minister for Post José Maria Ramirez Lopez, pledged the support of the Spanish Government to ensure that the Spanish Post Office was able to successfully implement the UPU's IFS system in Central and Latin America. He said the Government recognised the need in this time of financial crisis to ensure there was an affordable, trusted and secure money transfer service. Sixto Heredia Herrera, President of the Spanish Post Office, said his company was committed to making the system widely available and connected to as many countries in the region as possible.



Neil Anderson, Head of UNI Telecom said UNI wanted to be part of the pilot project being run by the UPU, UPAEP and The Spanish Post Office, to ensure that workers in the post office were properly trained in the system and that migrant workers were informed and advised of this great safe, secure and cheap way to send their money home. He said Post Offices were in an an ideal position in this time of financial crisis to offer a trusted service at a large number of locations both in Spain and in the receiving countries. He said UNI congratulated the Spanish Government on their foresight and commitment to helping migrant workers, their families and the economies of the countries where they were transferring their money by making this system as widely available as possible. However he said the project needed both financial and marketing support to ensure there was equipment in the remote locations to carry out the service and that it was properly marketed with migrant workers and he said UNI would be working to ensure this was the case.



At the meeting the Uruguay and Costa Rica governments signed a bilateral agreement to join the IFS system so money could be easily transferred by workers between those two countries. Already they are both part of the IFS network with Spain. The UNI delegation witnessed this first hand when they visited a local post office near the meeting venue in Central Madrid and saw a notice advertising the service to the local community.

Representatives of UPAEP, Costa Rica, the Spanish Ministry of Development and Uruguay at the agreement signing





Notice on a Spanish Post Office that money transfer to Uruguay is possible now